Early in the year 1874, Norway’s greatest playwright penned a letter to Norway’s greatest composer, a letter that read in part: “Dear Mr. Grieg! I am intending to adapt Peer Gynt for stage performance. Would you be willing to compose the necessary music?”

The letter was signed Henryk Ibsen.

Two years later, on today’s date in 1876, Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” premiered at Norway’s Christiania Theater with the requested music by Grieg. Excerpts from Grieg’s incidental music, arranged into concert suites, rapidly became some of his best-known and best-loved works. Oddly enough, Grieg himself complained that Ibsen’s play was quote “the most unmusical of subjects,” and that working on the project had become a nightmare for him.

While Grieg’s music is famous around the world, the story-line of Ibsen’s play remains largely unfamiliar to music lovers. It’s ironic that Grieg’s music for “Peer Gynt” is perceived as being quintessentially Norwegian, when the story line of Ibsen’s play takes its hero on travels all across the globe.

For most music lovers, the famous excerpt titled “Morning Mood” might evoke the sun rising over the snowcapped peaks surrounding a Norwegian fjord—but in the context of Ibsen’s play, in fact, it’s the prelude to a scene set in the North African desert!